1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to stone masonry, and in particular to the construction of stone surfaces and corners using veneer stone.
2. Background Description
Formerly stone is laid as a structural component or as an aesthetic cladding or veneer on houses, buildings, walls, chimneys and as paving or flooring.
Stone comes in different types: thin stone one-half inch to three inches thick that is either a field stone or is quarried and split to the appropriate size; and building stone, which is a three inch to nine inch thick stone that is either a field stone or is quarried and split to the appropriate size. Thin stone and building stone are generally the same stone except for their different thicknesses.
There are many other types of stone: flag stone, granite, marble, dimensional stone that typically comes in thin panels flat or polished. Also there are boulders and edging, none of which are of concern to the present invention. Only thin stone and building stone are of concern to the present invention.
The advantages and disadvantages of thin stone are as follows. Thin stone is inexpensive to buy, easy and inexpensive to lay, and easy and inexpensive to transport. However, thin stone leaves an unsightly joint on the outside corners of the wall, house, building or whatever is being laid. At the outside corners, the thickness of the stone can be readily ascertained because the thin edge of the stone is visible, which shatters the illusion of a thick (4 inch to 9 inch) stone cladding most preferred by customers. It should be noted that inside corners are not a problem, because the thin edges do not show and there is no difference in the appearance between building stone and thin stone. The difficulty is with the external corner.
There are two inadequate solutions in the prior art. First, building stone is laid instead of thin stone, which solves the problem of unsightly corners of thin stone. The down side of building stone is it's expensive to buy, hard and expensive to lay, and heavy and expensive to transport.
Second, culture or imitation stone may be used to provide an illusion of thick stone at the corners. Culture stone is made of poured and cast concrete to which is applied a thin cladding layer of simulated rock on the front and edges. Culture stone comes in a two part system. Flat stones (½ inch to 3 inch thick) laid on the wall surface and corner pieces shaped like a 90 degree “L” (½ inch to 3 inches thick) laid on the corners of the wall. Laid together, these surface and corner pieces give the illusion of thick stone, but it is light in weight compared to thick stone and it has the easy laying character of thin stone.
The drawbacks to this solution are as follows: culture stone costs as much per square foot of surface area as thick building stone. Culture stone can't be cleaned with commercial acid based masonry cleaners to remove mortar stains, as this would corrode the “stone” appearance and void the warranty. Culture stone can't be used in constant contact with water (ponds, swimming pools and the like), unlike real stone. Furthermore, culture stone doesn't lend itself to fit and finish as well as thin stone. Typically, thin stone is trimmed a bit with a hammer and/or flipped over to fit in various spots in a wall. FIG. 2A shows a thin stone 200 with edges 210. Trimming the thin stone 200 reveals a new edge 220, which has the same texture and attributes as the stone itself. Culture stone trimmed up exposes the unsightly inside of the piece since the stone look of the piece is provided by a thin coating. Culture stone can't be flipped over to fit a space since the coating is only on the front. FIG. 2B shows a culture stone 250 with edges 260. Trimming the culture stone 250 reveals a new edge 270, which does not have the cladding of edges 260. Instead, the edge 270 shows a cladding layer 275 (not shown to scale) formed over concrete 280.
It is to be noted that another potential solution is not workable. Culture stone corners cannot be used with thin stone walls because the texture of the culture stone cladding is noticeably different from thin stone, and makes the corners unsightly on that account.